A Call for a Faith that Matters

This fall I, along with a former Elder of our church, have had the privilege of teaching a group of 22 high school students about cultivating a biblical worldview.  As churches, we often send our young people away to school or to careers thinking we have prepared them for success as Christians.  But statistics have shown that to be an invalid assumption.  Really less than a fifth of students who grow up in the church continue their walk with the church as they venture away from home.  Many falter along the way. 


As a church we asked ourselves why this occurs so frequently.  We discovered two responses to that question.  First, many of our young people today are not seeing modeled within their own families the viability of having a Christian faith.  What is proclaimed on Sunday is found lacking in the everyday experiences of Monday through Saturday.  Second, many of young people today have never had the opportunity of claiming ownership of their faith.  They have what I call a "second-hand faith."  It has been borrowed from their parents or grandparents or youth leaders.  But it has never become a part of who they are as a follower of Jesus Christ. 


After this discovery, our church proceeded to work toward rectifying both problems.  We began a focus on the family becoming part of the Faith@Home network of churches.  Our ministry purpose is to help parents so that they can disciple their own children in the things of the Lord, modeling after the principles found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Ephesians 6:1-4.  We have created "milestone" moments to assist and to train parents in their biblical responsibilities.  We are seeing families come together for both study and for worship.  As a pastor it is so exciting to see entire families in our Worship Center sharing in worship together.  Yes+-, we get a dropped pacifier from the balcony once in a while, or a toddler will make a fuss, but oh the delight that God must get when He sees entire families worshiping Him.  As a church we still have a long way to go before we feel that we where God would have us to be, but the journey, so far, has been an incredible one. 


As we focused upon our young people God created within us a strong desire to have our teens thoroughly grounded in the Word of God.  We already have a strong AWANA and Sunday school ministry to elementary children and our Middle School ministry is growing.  But we wanted to do even more.  Our eighth-grade students spend a year in Old Testament Survey.  Our ninth-grade students spend a three months in New Testament Survey, thus completing a study of the entire Bible.  Then, those same ninth-grade students will spend four months in a Survey of Bible Doctrine where they are exposed to those basic tenants of the faith.  As part of their homework assignments, they begin to write their own statements of faith - beginning that process of claiming ownership of what they believe.  This year we have added an elective class for high school students on a Biblical Worldview.  During this 22-week class, the students will begin to cultivate disciplined and critical thinking skills as they begin to see their world from a biblical perspective.  Next year a second elective will be offered to high school students that will focus upon a historical geography of the Bible.  Our Youth Pastor spent four-weeks this summer in Israel preparing herself for this class.  The students will once again travel through the pages of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, focusing upon the key events, places, and people.  At the close of this class - if the students have successfully completed all four years of study - these students will have the opportunity of taking a trip to the Holy Land to experience for themselves those places they have studied.  Upon their return, a final elective class on apologetics, now in the planning stages, will be be offered.  The students will once again have the opportunity of revisiting their own statements of faith and cultivate a dense for that faith. 


I am reminded of the words of Paul to his young disciple Timothy: "I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your other Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also" (2 Timothy 1:5).  Timothy had learned the foundations of his faith at home from his mother and grandmother.  Or there are these words from Solomon, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).  Again the focus is upon the home.  Parents are to help their children begin to form that foundation upon which those children will build their lives.  They can do this by reading the Bible to their children.  I believe that by the time a child reaches kindergarten, they should have been exposed to the major stories within the entire Bible.  David and Daniel, Moses and Noah, Peter and Paul, as well as Jesus Himself should be names that your child is familiar with.  Then they proceed through Sunday school and AWANA clubs, (or any program like that), and begin to hear those stories told once again.  Then, during those middle school and high school years, those students are given tools and opportunity to add some superstructure to that foundation upon which they have grown their lives.  Then, the church, working hand-in-hand with parents, will see more young people leave home fully equipped unto every good work. 


Friends, the times demand that the church equip parents to do ministry within their own homes.  The pressures upon families today are intense with our culture seeking the destruction of the family.  The Church has failed in thinking that their role was to usurp that God-given responsibility entrusted into the hands of those families.  But the Church working together with families, like putting a hand into a glove, can confidently grow children into young men and women who have a passion to serve the Lord and to remain strong in their faith.  This may be our last opportunity, so let's use those moments well.